B7971 Smart Socket Modular Clock

[Richard Scales]

I discovered the Smart Socket design for B7971 tubes almost 10 years ago and I built a couple of devices using them.

At the time I made up a bunch of spare boards for future projects but never really did anything with them.

Since then I have developed a number of methods to ease the process of linking the smart sockets together, each one an improvement (IMHO) on the previous one.

Winding the clock forward to today - I now have a modular system that links the original sockets (if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) together in pairs, making it relatively easy to create a device with any even number of tubes.

The first board is the 'controller' which has space to mount two smart sockets and it provides the following features:

• Dual led tube underlighting (for those that like it)
• 5V and HV power supplies (NCH6300HV from Omnixie)
• Wemos micro controller
• 12V power socket
• PIR socket 
• eeProm for word storage

The second (and subsequent) board(s) include the tube underlighting and space for an additional HV module if needed.

I currently have this configured as a FLW clock though plan to extend it to 8 or more tubes as time (and tubes) permit.

In the pictures, the top layer is made up of the regular B7971 Smart Sockets whilst the bottom layer shows the 'controller' board on the left and the 'extension' board on the right - these two boards link together using either wired connections or 90 degree pin/sockets as desired.
All electronics on these two boards in 'underneath' with the exception of the APA-106 LEDs.
I appreciate that there are many other ways to drive these tubes but I have done a lot with 'smart sockets' over the years and I already had 20 made up which is how I arrived at this solution.

- Richard

[newxito]

There seems to be a problem with the pictures... 

[Richard Scales]

On Fri, 6 Feb 2026, 16:20 Richard Scales, <scal...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, 6 Feb 2026, 16:19 Richard Scales, <scal...@gmail.com> wrote:

How about now!

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